WASHINGTON: The Senate on Tuesday rejected a measure President Barack Obama supported to help control the nation’s spiraling federal debt.
The president’s public support over the weekend for the bill proposed by the Budget Committee’s chairman and ranking Republican, was to establish a commission of legislators to create a proposal to tackle the nation’s $12 trillion-plus debt, which would be submitted to Congress for a vote. The bill needed 60 votes to pass and got only 53.
They said their concern is that the recommendations from such a commission can be voted up or down only as a group, with no opportunity to use some and reject others.
The vote against the commission, unlike so many in this Congress, was not split along party lines. The 23 Republicans who joined 23 Democrats to vote against the bill shared concerns about ceding power — but were worried that the prospect might lead to tax hikes rather than entitlement cuts.
The vote came hours after a Congressional Budget Office report showed the projected deficit for the 2010 fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, would be $1.3 trillion. That would be down slightly from $1.4 trillion for fiscal 2009.
So Wednesday the White House announced that Obama would establish a similar panel by executive order to recommend by December how to reduce annual budget deficits and to slow, or reverse, the growth of the national debt.
Recent polls show that the public’s belief that spending is out of control is undercutting Obama’s support.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has projected that cumulative deficits over the next ten years will reach $9.3 trillion, and the amount of federal debt held by the public will reach 82 percent of GDP.
A freeze on spending of any kind in Washington is a welcome first step toward repairing the nation’s balance sheet. Some experts, however, say the freeze Obama proposed is not enough.
Critics say the freeze would exclude spending on defense, homeland security, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, interest on the national debt, and the stimulus.
It would only apply to non-defense discretionary spending — or one-eighth of the total budget. Obama estimates that this will save $250 billion over the next ten years, which will almost save the CBO the trouble of rounding down from $9.3 trillion to $9 trillion.
As for the announcement of a presidential panel, some Republican Congressional leaders have already said they would refuse to serve on a commission, especially one that the president creates.
This decision prompted columnist Tom Friedman to write in Wednesday’s New York Times: “President Obama tried to create a bipartisan commission to come up with a plan to reduce the national debt ... But the Republican leaders, Sen. Mitch McConnell, said the GOP would not cooperate with any commission that proposes raising taxes. And some liberal Democrats rejected cutting their favorite programs.
“Way to take one for the country, guys,” concluded Friedman.
Finally, as if the economy wasn’t enough of a problem, a poll taken last week by Zogby International shows that more American voters felt safer on airplanes under the Bush administration than they currently do under President Obama.
The poll also found that plurality of voters give Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano an “F” for her efforts to keep America safe.
